Analysis of the circumferential bulging capacity and uniformity under different TEC layout and the roll structure in the ETCR

Abstract Electronic temperature control roll (ETCR) technology is a new roll profile control technology based on the principle of the semiconductor cooling and heating effect. The thermoelectric cooler (TEC) is the core component for controlling roll profiles in this technology. The TEC layout and the roll structure can affect the bulging ability of the roll, the bulging uniformity and the uniformity of the roll temperature field. To research the influence of the TEC layout and the roll structure on these factors, a circumferential finite element model of ETCR is established by the finite element software MSC.MARC, and is verified on the experimental platform of ETCR. After analysis, it was found that increasing the roll diameter or decreasing the diameter of the roll inner hole can increase the bulging ability of the roll, improve the bulging uniformity and weaken the temperature ratchet. Increasing the temperature of TEC or decreasing the single piece influence angle can increase the bulging ability of the roll and improve the temperature ratchet, while the effect of changing the single piece influence angle on the bulging uniformity is larger than that of the temperature of TEC. In view of the difficulty of circumferential uniform bulging when the single piece influence angle is large, a scheme of adding a metal layer of high thermal conductivity material in the roll inner hole is proposed. The results showed that the copper layer has little influence on the bulging ability of the roll and can reduce the circumferential bulging difference.